Other possible "EUs" (transcontinental confederations)?

Alkahest

Banned
Hey everyone! I was wondering if you could help me speculate about some plausible scenarios in which we could end up with "EUs": Multipolar, loose confederations that span entire continents, or at least really frikkin' huge areas. OTL EU is kind of unique in that it doesn't have a single hegemonic centre of power, and in that it's the result of diplomacy rather than conquest. So no "Napoleon/Muslims/Brits/Commies/Americans conquer everything", if you please!

So what do you think? In what other TLs (already written or imaginable) could several powerful states unite in a way similar to OTL Western Europe? What is needed for such a union to occur?
 
Balkanize North America, with OTL Canada splitting in two (Quebec vs. the rest) and OTL United States maybe splitting into at least four (Union, CSA, Texas, California etc.).
Then you could come up with a North American Union as a merger of equals comparable to the European Union.
 
Spanish-speaking America seems like the best candidate: many countries, none of which is overwhelmingly rich or powerful, all speaking the same language and sharing similar religious and social traditions. In the absence of a powerful USA, which has an interest in dividing and conquering, Latin America would probably drift towards a close political integration in the manner of the EU.
 
Well, you've got some developing OTL anyway which could be more successful- ASEAN, MERCOSUR and so forth. There's scope for an enlarged EAC or SADC and merging ECOWAS with ECCAS is certainly feasible considering the shared history of the two blocks.
 
You did have the Latin Monetary Union between 1866-1914. Now if you included political integration and a single body to oversee trade agreements, then you would have a union including France, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium and Greece. Once you have that, you could gradually bring in political integration and bring Spain and Austro-Hungary into the agreement. Once the Austro-Hungarians are in, changing the name to the European Confederation or some-suchlike is possible. This in itself would invite other members.

This would take decades, but could butterfly away the Great War, Hitler and all that nastiness.
 

Alkahest

Banned
All good ideas, thanks!

How do you guys view the possibility of trans-cultural confederations? Spanish America, the Arab world and Western Europe all have rather similar cultures, religions and so forth. What do you think is necessary for, as an example, an ATL Christian Europe to enter into a political union with a Muslim Middle East? I mean, it seems likely that OTL Turkey (and Albania, but I somehow doubt that such a small country could have much of an impact) will eventually join the EU, but how early is such a development possible?
 
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The Jagiellons could do better and corral all or most of the Poland-Lithuania-Bohemia-Hungary group into some lasting alliance/confederation/whatever. They might even manage to do the same with Muscovy. Big (especially if Russia is included) - check. No clear hegemon - check.
 
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